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The Alton Towers Dungeon
- Thread starter GaryH
- Start date
ChristmasPud
TS Member
No, it's not the park saying these things is it? It's 'enthusiasts' (one of which is actually a Merlin manager) that have been given free tickets and validation in return for saying good things about the park.
Trying to pitch it like these are just vox pops from the public who've 'just happened' to have come out the ride and here's what their 'genuine' reactions are. "Hey look, I, Random Lifestyle Blogger, thinks its good, and Im one of you! So it must be good!"
Well all know any video they do is going to be positive biased, but can't Alton Towers just advertise THE attraction without needing to fake opinion too? These 'vlog personalities' will give up their integrity and go along with anything if they're treated like celebrities
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Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
So many different companies do this though, we just so happen to know in this case that some people's views are a little more biassed.
ChristmasPud
TS Member
It may be widespead but does that mean people shouldnt speak against it?
Also, check out this ridiculous excuse for the blank walls (which even other Dungeons dont have) in Towers Times article.
"The Alton Towers Dungeon uses a ‘three wall set’ model which means that the walls the guests face are fully themed, whilst the one that is typically behind guests is left black and relies on the darkness of the room and the fact guests are facing away from it therefore not noticing that not all the walls are fully themed."
Clearly something they were told, framed like it was a production design 'technique' and therefore acceptable. If the darkness of the room and direction of guests worked correctly, you wouldnt even need to explain this in an article because guests wouldnt notice blank walls in the first place.
When Toyland Tours opened, did they encourage enthusiasts to write down every single minutia of its theming in an article and then add "the ride uses the 'bare ceiling' model, which means that while the rest the rooms are fully themed...". No, because anything in eyeline was themed and scenes were designed well enough that guests were misdirected from where they weren't supposed to see.
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Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Not at all, I just don't really care that Alton Towers have done it!
ChristmasPud
TS Member
Ok, but then you're apathetic to something you know is manipulative? Forgive me but I'm not, hence my post. Haha
All I ask for is that theme parks create attractions that stand up on their own merit, without relying 75% on hype, massive exaggerations and BS.
Another thing is, it's hardly as though Alton Towers were not going to try and do the best with this bad idea. All those saying "oh its not that bad", maybe so but this is the reason that we end up with a patchwork park made up of fads, brands and mediocrity in the long run.
The park would have really benefitted from a solid family dark ride and a redesign of the whole area.
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Steve74
TS Member
Do you know for sure that they were given free tickets?
Because I know from speaking to one of the Backseat Blackout lads that they paid for the tickets themselves. They were offered 2 free tickets but that was only because the attraction on press day the other week wasn't finished. He also said that nobody approached them asking for their views - in fact they openly went up to the camera crew and asked if they could be interviewed as the they didn't seem to be approaching many people. If other vloggers did the same then that could explain why so many are in it. He also said that it wasn't obvious that they were interviewing for the park, they were just hanging around with a camera set up. Obviously they and other vloggers knew what they were there for but the general public probably didn't.
Personally I'm not bothered whether vloggers are interviewed or not in the video, I'll decide for myself if I want to do an attraction; I don't need a vlogger or celebrity to tell me to do it. From what I have seen from Twitter, forums and Facebook, the Dungeons are getting mostly positive reviews from the GP, so to me whoever appears in the vlogs is irrelevant. End of the day, many young people now look up to vloggers as role models just like older generations years ago looked up to celebrities. So it's no different having vloggers in videos these days to a major celebrity endorsing a ride years ago - like Philip Schofield opening the Haunted House, Blue Peter on Nemesis, Oblivion, Air and The Smiler (and even Kylie Minogue on the Alton Mouse I think?) to name a few.
So with that in mind, why shouldn't Alton Towers embrace the vlogging/YouTube culture and use it to their advantage? I didn't see many complaints when vloggers appeared in the Wicker Man promo videos last year.
ChristmasPud
TS Member
I'm surprised people on here have such a problem with it. I'm not saying they should be jailed, I'm just rejecting it (like we all seem to agree) as an attempt to manipulate opinion among fans. You can bet they will do the same and come out with "its not that bad actually" for everything Merlin do, next up the Stargazing Pods!
Does any of that sound remotely likely? And then how come then it's the same faces again and again, that appear in all UK Merlin park 'fan' promos?
That's great, but like you say later in your post there are many impressionable young people who do look up to these vloggers and I think the parrot culture of the internet is pretty well known. Just look at the comments on that one video.
That's a bit of a stretch, these people arent adding celebrity PR, they're playing the role of "fans" endorsing something for /on behalf of other fans. Or in the case of this video, being portrayed as 'the first riders reactions' while it's all in their interests to say good things to Merlin.
This has been happening more and more these last 2 years or so, let's say it's just recently become so regular that people are clocking on to it
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Dave
TS Founding Member
All advertising is manipulative, that’s the point.
Your confusing your argument here, should the park have put in something with intrinsic worth that is more than a knee jerk quick fix with a 2 year shelf life? Hell yes! However the video itself is standard marketing technique in the social media age and unless you are against advertising of all kind then it’s difficult to criticise this one.
I’m not keen on the social media and fan sites that sell their soul to parks. I think TS proves you can give factual responses and still get invites to events but that’s a whole other argument. TT have always kissed Towers buttocks since we left all those years ago.
Steve74
TS Member
Yes, I believe what I was told. Call me naive if you like but after watching their vlogs over the months and DM'ing one of the members on Twitter (about an unrelated subject) a few months ago I have built up a level of credibility and trust with them. So I have no reason to disbelieve them. And as far as vloggers go then it will be the same few popping up everywhere as there are only so many and only a handful of those are the popular ones.
But that's the point, Towers, like any other company that has ever advertised relies on people being impressionable.
They are adding a different type of celebrity PR - social media celebrity. Towers demographic is young families and kids/teens and young adults. I know from my two teenagers that they live on their phones. We (us older ones!) may love seeing adverts on the telly for Towers and prefer more traditional forms of advertising, but generally unless that TV advert pops up on the latest social media app the younger generation are unlikely to see it. Towers are using word of mouth via popular vloggers to get the word out there that their latest attraction is good and people should try it out. Is that a bad thing? No, it's just evolution of the way things are now advertised.
ChristmasPud
TS Member
Ok that's true, but I think there's great value in advertising what you've got, parks would fail without spreading the word.
But showing about what you've got is very different from hyping it up with these kinds of methods.
I think there's also a big difference between simple persuasion and then going so far as to use people that work for you to be 'enthusiast ambassadors'! It seems obvious that this is more about these people's 'vlog careers' than whether or not they love the Alton Towers Dungeon.
What I meant was that people didn't look to celebrities and think, well 'theyre like me', 'theyre one of us' and therefore their opinion is 'relatable'. That's the only interest Merlin has in building relationships with fans. It works too.
Steve74
TS Member
That may be so, but is that any different to a celebrity advertising a product? Is Martin Freeman advertising Vodafone because he loves their product offering/service or because it paid well and it could lead on to other things? I guess we'll never know but I can make an educated guess!
ChristmasPud
TS Member
Yeah, didnt you already say that point and I answered? Its different because celebrities arent pretending to be general public vox pops or other enthusiasts (#hashtagrelatable). Or working for the company they're promoting.
Yes, all advertising that sort of game, but this is more about trying to manipulate a fan base by using 'famous fans' as your mouthpiece. Anyway, Ive taken over this thread a bit and Ive said what I wanted to
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Here's a small review from yesterday!
The Judge
It was quite good but was let down by the judge being at eye level and just an overall lack of finer details (the light in the book for example)
The Boat Ride
I always assumed that people were exaggerating about the lack of theming but...wow there were literally whole rooms with nothing in!
The Torturer
Exact same word for word as every other one, now with 90% less theming!
The Pub Scene
By far the best scene for me but the actor playing the innkeeper kept doing this thing where she would be nice and concerned for the guests safety then would have a mood swing and become nasty, I think the scene would have worked better and been scarier if the innkeeper was on your side throughout.
The Surgeon
It was just like all the other ones except they didn't squirt the bladder at people for some reason.
Molly Leigh
This was actually quite disappointing, the majority of the scene was perfect but the big reveal of the witch wasn't nearly as intense as it should have been, the sound that played when the witch appeared was way too quiet and couple that with the way she gracefully moved round the room like a ballerina, the whole thing just lacked any sort of impact!
It would have been better if the actor had rampaged around the room shrieking, while all the rooms effects activate all at once.
The Judge
It was quite good but was let down by the judge being at eye level and just an overall lack of finer details (the light in the book for example)
The Boat Ride
I always assumed that people were exaggerating about the lack of theming but...wow there were literally whole rooms with nothing in!
The Torturer
Exact same word for word as every other one, now with 90% less theming!
The Pub Scene
By far the best scene for me but the actor playing the innkeeper kept doing this thing where she would be nice and concerned for the guests safety then would have a mood swing and become nasty, I think the scene would have worked better and been scarier if the innkeeper was on your side throughout.
The Surgeon
It was just like all the other ones except they didn't squirt the bladder at people for some reason.
Molly Leigh
This was actually quite disappointing, the majority of the scene was perfect but the big reveal of the witch wasn't nearly as intense as it should have been, the sound that played when the witch appeared was way too quiet and couple that with the way she gracefully moved round the room like a ballerina, the whole thing just lacked any sort of impact!
It would have been better if the actor had rampaged around the room shrieking, while all the rooms effects activate all at once.
I presume you are saying that the light in the book wasn't working yesterday? It was working on Tuesday when I visited.
They sure did squirt the bladder at people when I visited on Tuesday
Matt.GC
TS Member
Went today and pondered whether to do the dungeon as it is the new addition to the park this year. But then I just couldn't justify taking an hour out of my meager 10 - 16:00 day to do it.
Also agree with what has been said about the pictures posted on here of the facade not portraying what what it looks like on the ground - because in the flesh it looks even WORSE.
The separation of CCL wasn't as bad as I was expecting and kind of makes sense to have this new "Towers" area. But the entrance to the dungeon just looked wierd with all that wood and the black painted Charlie facade in between the entrance and Burger Kitchen looks atrocious and really stands out when you look at it from the direction of the Sky ride station.
Burger Kitchen just looks like the old building has got jaundice.
Also agree with what has been said about the pictures posted on here of the facade not portraying what what it looks like on the ground - because in the flesh it looks even WORSE.
The separation of CCL wasn't as bad as I was expecting and kind of makes sense to have this new "Towers" area. But the entrance to the dungeon just looked wierd with all that wood and the black painted Charlie facade in between the entrance and Burger Kitchen looks atrocious and really stands out when you look at it from the direction of the Sky ride station.
Burger Kitchen just looks like the old building has got jaundice.